Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Welcome, Inquirer readers

Today is a proud day for Detectives Beyond Borders, the blog for international crime fiction: DBB is now linked to the online edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer. (You'll find the link on the newspaper's Blogs & Columns page.)

I like to think of this as a clever and productive way for the Inquirer to take advantage of its staff's latent talents and to offer readers material for which there is insufficient space in the newspaper. I hope Inquirer readers will find it a diverting place to learn about and discuss crime writing and crime writers from around the world.

We'll discuss issues in international crime fiction, including strategies of translation, and you'll learn what crime-fiction fans in other countries read. You'll also get to chat with an interesting, knowledgeable and friendly group of readers from around the world, and, if you'd like, to practice your French, Italian, German, Spanish and maybe even Finnish.

Practice my anything other than ragged English - now I feel somewhat inadequate. Perhaps I could offer a translation service for Australian English?

Seriously though - well done on the possibility of increased readership - it's great fun to see where this blog goes on a daily basis.

Incidentally http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_Japrisot - I'm reading the 10.30 From Marseille at the moment - for something at the very other end of the spectrum from Vargas - it's great fun.

Weren't you the person who told meabout the occasional revolting practice of publishers' "translating" Australian slang for books published elsewhere in the English-speaking world? And I did post a link to some typically funny exasperation from Shane Maloney about a publisher who wanted to change footpath to sidewalk for an American edition of one of his books. So a translation service for Australian English may not be as outlandish as you think.

Thanks for the kind words. I hope the new link will drive readership up both for me and for the paper.

I had the idea that Japrisot went in for slow, leisurely storytelling more somber than Vargas'. Was I imagining that? Yikes, and Audrey Tautou was in the movie version of A Very Long Engagement. Was that one of the "cute" roles that I mentioned in passing in my comment?

It was indeed me - but then we're now dealing with an EAGLE or some such lunacy on the cover of DIAMOND DOVE (which has been renamed MOONLIGHT DOWNS) so the insanity presses on.

I'm not sure that I'd call the Japrisot book I'm reading at the moment slow and leisurely. It's got quite an odd but engaging style - sort of delivered staccato - almost pulp style maybe (goodness knows I'm not good at this comparison stuff). I've not seen the movie I must admit and I only just accidentally fell across a couple of these books in a secondhand bookshop (what we call a UBS - see there's a translation for you :) ) recently - so it's interesting to try somebody completely new for me.

Seeing Japrisot's and Vargas' names together set off a spark. I think I have one of Japrisot's books lying around. I may take a look; thanks for that link you posted.

I wonder if the Diamond Dove cover issue relates to cultural differences or the fear thereof. The title was changed for the pedestrian reason that the U.S. publisher feared confusion with some its other titles. I don't know where the eagle or other non-dove bird comes from, though, except for the possibility that Soho wanted to emphasize some of the book's darker elements.

I always thought a UBS was one of the ports on a computer. In fact, though, we call used bookstores used bookstores here, store being more frequent than shop. I'd never seen the term UBS for one of them, though.

Oh great - my husband already thinks I'm a techno-idiot - UBS instead of USB will just about bury any credibility I've got left [VBEG]

I think I picked up UBS from one of my online reading groups - don't tell me we're going to need inter-language group translations as well - I'll be in bed with the doona pulled over my head until further notice :) :) :)

Nonsense. The MSM has so many strands to it that you can condemn portions (thus maintaining your blogger cred; I suggest starting with sportswriters) even as you succumb to some of its unholy blandishments. ;)

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About Me

This blog is a proud winner of the 2009 Spinetingler Award for special services to the industry and its blogkeeper a proud former guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's Here on Earth. In civilian life I'm a copy editor in Philadelphia. When not reading crime fiction, I like to read history. When doing neither, I like to travel. When doing none of the above, I like listening to music or playing it, the latter rarely and badly.
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